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PHOENIX — Donald Trump suggested Sunday that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal that the United States “foolishly” ceded to its Central American ally, contending that shippers are charged “ridiculous” fees to pass through the vital transportation channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest on Sunday in Phoenix. Panama's conservative president José Raúl Mulino, who was elected in April on a pro-business platform, roundly rejected that notion as an affront to his country's sovereignty. The Republican president-elect's comment came during his first major rally since winning the White House on Nov. 5. He also used his comments to bask in his return to power as a large audience of conservatives cheered along. It was a display of party unity at odds with a just-concluded budget fight on Capitol Hill where some GOP lawmakers openly defied their leader's demands. Addressing supporters at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Arizona, Trump pledged that his “dream team Cabinet” would deliver a booming economy, seal U.S. borders and quickly settle wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. “I can proudly proclaim that the Golden Age of America is upon us,” Trump said. “There’s a spirit that we have now that we didn’t have just a short while ago.” His appearance capped a four-day pep rally that drew more than 20,000 activists and projected an image of Republican cohesion despite the past week's turbulence in Washington with Trump pulling strings from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as Congress worked to avoid a government shutdown heading into the Christmas holiday. House Republicans spiked a bipartisan deal after Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire ally, expressed their opposition on social media. Budget hawks flouted Trump's request to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which would have spared some new rounds of the same fight after he takes office Jan. 20, 2025, with Republicans holding narrow control of the House and Senate. The final agreement did not address the issue and there was no shutdown. Trump, in his remarks in Phoenix, did not mention the congressional drama, though he did reference Musk's growing power. To suggestions that "President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon,” Trump made clear, “No, no. That’s not happening.” “He’s not gonna be president,” Trump said. The president-elect opened the speech by saying that "we want to try to bring everybody together. We’re going to try. We’re going to really give it a shot." Then he suggested Democrats have “lost their confidence” and are “befuddled” after the election but eventually will ”come over to our side because we want to have them.” A cargo ship traverses the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal on Sept. 2 in Colon, Panama. Atop a list of grievances — some old, some new — was the Panama Canal. “We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal,” he said, bemoaning that his country ”foolishly gave it away.” The United States built the Panama Canal in the early 1900s, as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter. The canal depends on reservoirs to operate its locks and was heavily affected by 2023 Central American droughts that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships using the canal each day, administrators also increased the fees that are charged all shippers for reserving a slot. With weather returning to normal in the later months of this year, transit on the canal has normalized. But price increases are still expected for next year. Mulino, Panama's president, has been described as a conservative populist who aligns with Trump on many issues. Panama is a strong U.S. ally and the canal is crucial for its economy, generating about one-fifth of that government’s annual revenue. Still, Trump said, that, once his second term is underway, "If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question.” “I’m not going to stand for it," Trump said. "So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.” He did not explain how that would be possible. A short time after Trump's speech, Mulino released a video declaring that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong” to his country. Without mentioning Trump by name, Mulino addressed the president-elect's complaints over rising fees for ships crossing the canal, saying that they are set by experts who take into account operational costs, and supply and demand factors. “The tariffs are not set on a whim” Mulino said. He noted that Panama has expanded the canal over the years to increase ship traffic “on its own initiative,” and added that shipping fee increases help pay for improvements. “Panamanians may have different views on many issues” Mulino said. “But when it comes to our canal, and our sovereignty, we will all unite under our Panamanian flag.” The canal aside, Trump’s appearance at Turning Point’s annual gathering affirmed the growing influence the group and its founder, Charlie Kirk, have had in the conservative movement. Kirk’s organization hired thousands of field organizers across presidential battlegrounds, helping Trump make key gains among infrequent voters and other groups of people that have trended more Democratic in recent decades, including younger voters, Black men and Latino men. ”You had Turning Point’s grassroots armies,” Trump said. “It’s not my victory, it’s your victory.” Earlier Sunday, Trump said that Stephen Miran, who worked at the Treasury Department in Trump's first term, was his choice to lead the Council of Economic Advisers. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. FILE - Former Rep. Doug Collins speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China, saying in a social media post that the former CEO “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.” Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Perdue pushed Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for governor. A Republican congressman from Michigan who served from 1993 to 2011, Hoekstra was ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term. “In my Second Term, Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice. “He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role.” Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump's 2020 campaign and became engaged to Don Jr. in 2020. Trump called her “a close friend and ally” and praised her “sharp intellect make her supremely qualified.” Guilfoyle was on stage with the family on election night. “I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,” Don Jr. posted. The ambassador positions must be approved by the U.S. Senate. Guilfoyle said in a social media post that she was “honored to accept President Trump’s nomination to serve as the next Ambassador to Greece and I look forward to earning the support of the U.S. Senate.” Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Rodney Scott led during Trump's first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country's borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump's policies. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration agenda. He appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He's also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Trump says he’s picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world. Lake endeared herself to Trump through her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that both she and Trump were the victims of election fraud. She has never acknowledged losing the gubernatorial race and called herself the “lawful governor” in her 2023 book, “Unafraid: Just Getting Started.” Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Ron Johnson, Ambassador to Mexico Johnson — not the Republican senator — served as ambassador to El Salvador during Trump's first administration. His nomination comes as the president-elect has been threatening tariffs on Mexican imports and the mass deportation of migrants who have arrived to the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson is also a former U.S. Army veteran and was in the Central Intelligence Agency. Tom Barrack, Ambassador to Turkey Barrack, a wealthy financier, met Trump in the 1980s while helping negotiate Trump’s purchase of the renowned Plaza Hotel. He was charged with using his personal access to the former president to secretly promote the interests of the United Arab Emirates, but was acquitted of all counts at a federal trial in 2022. Trump called him a “well-respected and experienced voice of reason.” Andrew Ferguson, Federal Trade Commission Ferguson, who is already one of the FTC's five commissioners, will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior. “Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.” Jacob Helberg, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment Dan Bishop, deputy director for budget at the Office of Budget and Management Leandro Rizzuto, Ambassador to the Washington-based Organization of American States Dan Newlin, Ambassador to Colombia Peter Lamelas, Ambassador to Argentina Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.We must ask for no references to Gaza/Palestine/Israel as it’s a very sensitive topic in our area. If these topics are included it drastically changes our risk management plans for events. Thus for safety and harmony we kindly ask the guest speakers avoid these topics and any questions about it that come up. Sam Wallman and I received this message from our publicist, one day before an event at a suburban library about our coauthored book. “Did they even read the damn thing?” Sam joked, as we strategised our response. Twelve Rules for Strife discusses grassroots social change. It celebrates the creativity of the people historian Studs Terkel described as the world’s “etceteras”. It contrasts the power of collective solidarity with what we dub “smug politics”: a liberalism that treats the masses as irredeemably backward, and so requiring careful management by the clever few on whom progress supposedly depends. We had been invited to discuss the political agency of ordinary people – and then told our audience couldn’t hear about the world’s most significant crisis. But Gaza is all I think about. In January, six-year-old Hind Rajab fled the fighting in Gaza City alongside her extended family. An Israeli tank targeted their car , killing almost everyone inside. Amid the wreckage and the blood, Hind’s 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamadeh, phoned the Palestinian Red Crescent, crying and pleading for help. “They are shooting at us,” she said. “The tank is right next to me.” The dispatchers heard Layan scream as a machine gun again raked the vehicle. When they rang back, Hind, the only person now alive, answered. “I’m so scared. Please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?” She stayed on the phone for three hours, while the Red Crescent transmitted her location to the Israeli army and dispatched an ambulance – and then the line dropped out again. Twelve days later, Hind’s surviving relatives found the wreckage of a van with two dead paramedics sprawled inside. Nearby, they located the car in which Layan, Hind and their family lay. An investigation by the US-based Forensic Architecture team established that 355 bullets had hit the vehicle. The researchers concluded that the shooters must have realised the vehicle contained civilians. “They were small,” writes W.H. Auden in The Shield of Achilles , And could not hope for help and no help came: What their foes liked to do was done. Safe spaces and moral seriousness I mention Hind because our interaction with the library (“we are doing this for everyone at the moment”, its email said) echoed the decision by the State Library of Victoria to cancel workshops by pro-Palestinian authors Omar Sakr, Jinghua Qian, Ariel Slamet Ries and Alison Evans. Grotesquely, the library cited its fears for children. Within the arts and elsewhere, sensitivity has been weaponised against Palestine. Sam and I were told we could not mention Gaza for “safety and harmony”, just as the State Library of Victoria explained that at a “time of heightened sensitivities” it needed to ensure “cultural safety”. When three actors wore keffiyehs for the curtain call of the Sydney Theatre Company’s performance of The Seagull, a subsequent letter accused them of using a “safe space, a theatre that is meant to bring communities together [...] as a platform for a political stunt that sought only to divide and alienate”. Ironically, Sam’s illustrations for the book we were invited to discuss draw on research I had done about the evolution of the “safe spaces” concept. The term emerged in the United States in the mid-1960s. It was first used by the gay and lesbian bars where patrons sheltered from homophobic police. Then it came to be used for the centres, shelters and bookshops in which the pioneers of women’s liberation organised. The meaning of a “safe space” shifted during the mass movement against the Vietnam war. In 1972, the psychoanalyst Chaim Shatan wrote for the New York Times about attending a “rap session” with the activist group Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He coined the phrase “post-Vietnam syndrome” for psychic injuries inflicted on men “deceived, used and betrayed” by those who led them into a cruel and brutal conflict. The condition pertained not to combat per se, but the political context in which it took place. Psychoanalyst Chaim Shatan coined the phrase ‘post-Vietnam syndrome’ for the psychic injuries suffered by soldiers. Image: U.S. Army helicopters during Operation Wahiawa, northeast of Cu Chi, South Vietnam, 1966. James K. F. Dung, SFC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons When the anti-war movement declined, damaged veterans interpreted their suffering through less collective and more psychological narratives. In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III included “post-traumatic stress disorder”, a condition stripped of the political specificity on which Shatan had insisted. The description related to any severe stressors, and so could be diagnosed away from the battlefield. The US Department of Veterans Affairs listed “natural disasters, serious accidents, assaults or abuse, or even sudden and major emotional losses” as possible causes. PTSD entered popular consciousness through depictions of veterans traumatised by backfiring cars or other noises resembling gunfire. By analogy, feminist commenters on the early internet began posting warnings before discussing sexual abuse, eating disorders or other topics that might “trigger” involuntary responses. The practice spread through blogs and then social media, and made its way to US universities in the 2010s. Most campus trigger warnings simply replicated the journalistic convention of providing audiences notice before the display of disturbing content. Nevertheless, lurid – and sometimes entirely false – stories about safe spaces provided ammunition for the never-ending culture war in which right-wing populists denounced universities for indulging politically-correct snowflakes. It was that backlash, more than anything else, that brought the terminology into widespread use. For a small number of radicals, trigger warnings and safe spaces became, in the absence of a mass student movement, a mechanism for shielding the marginalised and oppressed. To that end, activists looked to policies enforced by sympathetic student unions or university administrations. The reliance on institutional support gave the strategy a distinctly bureaucratic character, with “safety” defined and imposed from the top by a tiny and often self-selected minority. The meaning of “safe spaces” evolved, in other words, from an adjunct to mass struggles to a version of the “smug politics” our book polemicised against. That was why the term provided convenient cover for the opponents of Palestinian solidarity: the historical association with campus activism eased the conscience of “progressive” administrators, even as their bans received applause from the conservatives who had mocked and belittled safe spaces in the 2010s. Consider how the organisers of Western Australia’s major arts festival prepared for discussions of Palestine. Under the heading “Perth festival fosters a safe and inclusive environment”, they explained: there is great concern and distress felt by members of our community in response to the suffering and tragic loss of innocent lives in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Our hearts are with all those who are hurting or have lost loved ones or friends. Perth Festival seeks to bring people from broad backgrounds and perspectives together to embrace our shared humanity and foster understanding and compassion through a diverse program of artistic experiences. We believe art has the power to unite people and bridge divisions. [...] We all have a collective responsibility to engage with each other – including our audiences, artists, staff and volunteers – in a mutual spirit of safety, inclusivity, respect, courtesy and tolerance. Fine sentiments, in the abstract. Yet conciliation is a virtue only in particular circumstances. People squabbling over a cake might, respectfully and courteously, cut it into halves. They couldn’t do the same with a disputed kitten – at least, not without covering themselves in blood. The International Court of Justice has declared “plausible” the allegations that Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza. United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide [...] has been met”. Israeli Holocaust scholar Raz Segal speaks of “a textbook case of genocide”. The University Network for Human Rights, the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School have collaborated on a report that concludes Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people. How much less does festival etiquette matter than credible, serious claims about the worst crime known to humanity? A paternalistic injunction to “bridge divisions” displays a jaw-dropping lack of moral seriousness, as if artists and audiences should find middle ground between those opposed to genocide and those supportive of it. For or against? To illustrate the perversity of the safety trope, consider the literary response to a different war. In June 1936, Nancy Cunard, the poet, shipping heiress and bohemian, circulated a document to her extensive network of writerly contacts asking about their attitudes to the Spanish Civil War. At the time, most of the left supported the Spanish republic against General Franco. Many on the right – particularly, the Catholic right – backed the fascists, presenting Franco’s insurrection as a defensive war against communism. Nancy Cunard. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Countries like Britain and Australia maintained a purported neutrality, though, as historian Paul Preston explains, “everything was done in legal and financial terms to facilitate arms procurement by the [fascist] rebels while obstacles were repeatedly put in the way of the Republic purchasing arms and equipment”. Despite the controversy, Cunard did not urge the community of writers to come together and embrace a shared humanity. She sought, rather, to widen its divisions: “now, as certainly never before,” she said, “we are determined or compelled, to take sides. The equivocal attitude, the Ivory Tower, the paradoxical, the ironic detachment, will no longer do.” Rejecting the logic of the “safe space”, Cunard demanded writers adopt a position: Are you for, or against, the legal government and the people of Republican Spain? Are you for or against Franco and Fascism? For it is impossible any longer to take no side. The Left Review published the responses as a sixpenny pamphlet, Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War . It remains a remarkable document, with 148 statements from some of the 20th century’s greatest writers – Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, H.G. Wells, W.H. Auden, Ford Maddox Ford, Christina Stead, Arthur Koestler – alongside many figures now entirely forgotten. Cunard divided contributors into three categories: “For”, “Neutral?” and “Against”. She justified her project by taking seriously the claims artists made for their work. If poets were, as she said, “the most sensitive instruments of a nation”, their very sensitivity demanded a response to the war. As Thomas Mann argued, the artist “ever occupies humanity’s furtherest outposts” – and as such could not “be allowed to shirk a decision”. By comparison, today’s safety rhetoric reveals a cruelly diminished understanding of culture and its role. When submitting applications for funding, event organisers celebrate the supposed propensity of creatives to speak the unsayable. They don’t describe their programs as “safe”. They invoke Kafka’s call for an art experienced like “a fist hammering on our skulls” and scour thesauruses for words like “challenging”, “provocative”, “brave” and “transgressive”. Over Gaza, however, curatorial courage melts away faster than Kafka’s frozen sea, as if artists can shock and provoke only when absolutely nothing is at stake. The insistence on “safety” demonstrates that arts administrators understand culture as an umbrella full of holes – perfectly fine until actually required. Individual responsibility In June 1937, the singer and actor Paul Robeson addressed a fundraising event for Spain in London’s Albert Hall. “Every artist, every scientist, every writer,” he said, “must decide now where he stands [...] The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.” Both Robeson and Cunard stressed individual responsibility in a moment of extreme moral crisis. But both also made a different, and apparently contradictory, claim. Invoking choice, they hinted at necessity (“I had no alternative”), implying that the war forced everyone, whether they liked it or not, to pick a side. By then, the stakes were evident. A victory for Franco meant mass extermination: a program of reprisals Preston later called the “ Spanish Holocaust ”. It ensured the consolidation of fascism, not in a single country, but throughout Europe and the world. A global conflagration would follow, a crisis engulfing everything and everyone. Partisanship was inevitable because the catastrophe made every safe places deadly. We might say something similar today. After the second world war, the victorious nations established various rules and structures designed to ensure that the horrors that began with Spain and culminated in Auschwitz never recurred. The norms and institutions so forged included the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the Geneva Conventions. All of them were flawed and partial, repeatedly used in the decades that followed to legitimate the powerful against the weak. Nevertheless, they at least symbolised an ideal of international relationships governed by something other than naked violence. That model has now been shattered. The Gaza Strip – a territory only 41 kilometres long and less than 12 kilometres at its widest – houses nearly two million Palestinians, 47 percent of them children. Israel has dropped thousands of tonnes of explosives on that tiny area. The death toll is now more than 43,000 . At least 31 of the 36 hospitals have been damaged or destroyed , with more than 800 health care workers slain. Over 130 journalists have been killed (only 69 died in the whole second world war ), and 300 or more aid workers are dead . Human Rights Watch , Amnesty International and the United Nations report the systematic infliction of torture. As Amnesty International’s head Agnès Callamard argued, Gaza has revealed international law to be “frankly useless”. Israel has been accused of violating the Geneva Conventions – and been rewarded by Washington with US$17.9 billion in military assistance . In an increasingly unstable geostrategic environment, marked by rising tensions between the US, China and Russia, all the historic mechanisms for governing and restraining conflict lie in ruins. “We are really as close to the abyss as we have ever been,” Callamard says – and the chasm extends beyond military conflict. The international strategy for climate action depends, utterly and absolutely, on a liberal consensus now defunct. In theory, the 2015 Paris Agreement , by which nations agreed to limit emissions, mandates legally binding obligations. But given that Israel has simply ignored rulings by the International Court of Justice – and suffered no consequences as a result – who or what will compel recalcitrant leaders to fulfil climate pledges? The willingness of Western nations to privilege strategic interests over the lives of Palestinian children raises obvious questions about what or whom might be sacrificed as the environmental emergency intensifies. The profits from fossil fuels – a staggering US$2.8 billion dollars every day for the last 50 years – provide a substantial incentive for the wealthy to continue with carbon business as usual. They know that rising temperatures disproportionately affect the poor and the brown – and Gaza has shown such people can be disposed of with impunity. The time is short In the 1930s, the Spanish writer Miguel Hernández warned: A future of dust advances, A fate advances In which nothing will remain; Nor stone on stone nor bone on bone. So too today. The horrors of Gaza will resonate for decades to come. Paradoxically, the very scale of the crisis makes worthwhile even the tiniest gesture of solidarity. When Sam and I said that we would not speak at a censored event, we received, almost immediately, an apology from the organisers. The directive, they explained, had not originated from the staff, but had been circulated without their knowledge by someone in management. We should ignore the ban, they said. We could discuss whatever we wanted. They really hoped we would speak. We did, and I’m glad that we did. It wasn’t a huge event: perhaps 30 or so people around a makeshift stage and a dodgy speaker system. The participants were, like most attendees at literary events today, old, even frail, determinedly rugged up against a cold winter night. But they raised Palestine before we said anything. “I feel like I’m going mad,” a woman in her seventies told me: Like there’s something wrong with me. All these dead children, and we’re supposed to think it’s all right, that it’s normal. But it’s not! It’s not! She was almost crying. I doubt she cared very much about our book of cartoons about political organising. She came to a public event because she sought human connection, looking, in her anguish, for others who shared the sense of profound moral injury. And there are lots of us. If any good can be salvaged from this evil time, it is the solidarity of ordinary people, the crowds assembling again and again and again at events at which noisy contingents of Jews and Palestinians stand side-by-side. Auden described how, in the struggle for Spain, “our moments of tenderness blossom”. So too in the movement for Gaza, which brings together a kaleidoscope of identities, ethnicities and genders: refugee families alongside delegations of lawyers, Queers for Palestine next to pious Christians, Indigenous leaders on almost every platform. I have never experienced an Australian writers’ festival or cultural event that manifests anything comparable to the diversity of Palestinian solidarity, nor one in which the same youthful idealism dominates. A literary culture that, in the name of safety, guards itself against the world will, almost by definition, descend into sterility. By taking their place in the fight for Palestine, writers might, perhaps, play some role in reorienting a literature seemingly determined to pursue its own irrelevance. But, really, that’s not what matters. Journalist Alex McKinnon has written about the experience of social media in a genocide, the cascading images of children burned and broken among their bombed-out homes, each clip or picture a unique obscenity, a pornography of violence that degrades us all by its existence. You try and look away when you realise what you’re looking at but by then it’s too late, you put the phone down or turn it off or fling it away from you like a spider crawling on your hand but the image is already in your head along with all the other ones, filed away for when you’re in a Zoom meeting or meeting someone for coffee or rocking your daughter back to sleep in the middle of the night. Many of us know what he means. Roland Barthes described photography in terms of the “punctum”: the accidental aspect of a particular scene that reaches out and pricks a viewer. I scroll, more or less unscathed, past a man flattened by an Israeli tank or a journalist sobbing as he learns his wife and children are dead, or a woman lying on a gurney with her brains leaking out and, for no obvious reason, it’s the cheap plastic necklace around the neck of a little dead girl that unexpectedly brings me completely undone. “I don’t know if ‘radicalised’ is the right word,” McKinnon concludes, “but I’m a different person now than I was at the start of October. I’ve changed in a deep and fundamental way and I don’t see myself ever changing back.” I don’t either. In the 1930s, Auden expressed the nature of the obligation we now face: The stars are dead. The animals will not look. We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help or pardon. Writers – and everyone else – must take sides, irrespective of the sensitivities they offend. We have no choice. Gaza is not safe, and neither is the world that allows Gaza to happen. This essay was shortlisted for the 2024 Melbourne Prize for Literature . Jeff Sparrow has signed a statement of solidarity with Palestine from academics in Australian universities.

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TEMPE, Ariz. — The Minnesota Duluth men’s hockey program is making its first trip to Arizona State this week to take on the Sun Devils, who are in their first season in the NCHC. This is the Bulldogs' second trip to the state of Arizona in the last decade having traveled to Glendale, Arizona, for ASU's Desert Hockey Classic during the 2018-19 NCAA championship season around New Year's. The temperature never got above 59 degrees and dropped into the high 30s. ADVERTISEMENT This week the forecast in Tempe calls for highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Oh, and lots of sun. News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens is in Tempe with the Bulldogs to cover the series. He’ll be sharing some of the sights and sounds he encounters throughout the trip. Check back for daily updates to his travel journal throughout the weekend. Diving into Tempe on Day 1 Thursday In my 11 seasons of covering the UMD hockey programs and traveling the country with the Bulldogs men’s hockey program, I have never seen the players hitting up the hotel pool, especially one that is outdoors. In December. We’ve also never been on the road at Arizona State. The Bulldogs spent a warm, sunny Thursday afternoon soaking up some sun, playing cards and jumping into the hotel’s rooftop pool. There is also a bar on the roof by the pool, where KDAL’s Bruce Ciskie and I hope the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game will be on later tonight. Again, we’re in Arizona, so why not watch the game outdoors on a day where temperatures started in the mid-50s and climbed into the mid-70s before the sun began to descend behind the mountains to the west. Thursday was the team’s first full day in Tempe after arriving late, late Wednesday night. Windy weather at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport wreaked havoc on air travel in Minnesota. The team was originally scheduled to get into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport around 9 p.m. after flying out of MSP, however, delays because of weather — and a missing pilot — put the team on the ground around 10 p.m. ADVERTISEMENT While the team, as well as Ciskie, drove from Duluth to the Twin Cities, I decided to fly out of Duluth for this trip and was supposed to be on the same flight as them. My flight couldn’t get into MSP, however, and a 2:45 p.m. departure out of DLH turned into a 7:40 p.m. one. I barely caught a 9:40 p.m. flight from MSP to PHX and was finally on the ground in Phoenix around 11:30 p.m. Even on a trip to sunny Arizona, we can’t escape Minnesota’s winter weather. Both the Sun Devils and Bulldogs practiced Thursday at the Mountain America Community Iceplex because Mullett Arena is being used on Thursday night by the Valley Suns — the NBA G League affiliate of the Phoenix Suns. The Valley Suns moved to Mullett Arena this season after the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes were relocated to Utah. The community iceplex is adjacent to Mullett Arena and part of the same building and serves as the Sun Devils practice rink as Mullett Arena is also used by ASU’s volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics and women’s club hockey programs. Ciskie and I are scheduled to take a tour of the arena on Friday after the Sun Devils and Bulldogs hold their morning skates at Mullett. I’ll be here in Tempe until Monday morning — the team is flying back Sunday, Ciskie is here until Monday night — so check back for daily updates to the travel blog as I get out more and explore the area. Check out my Instagram (@mattwellens) for more updates throughout the weekend.

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NoneAs in 2023, investors were once again captivated by the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024. But not every stock has benefited. Sure, Nvidia and Broadcom have had great years, but not every AI beneficiary was as fortunate. Why would that be? For one, many traders look at results in the here and now. So, if a company had a near-term slip-up or a slowdown, their stocks were likely punished -- even if AI should provide a long-term tailwind for their business. The following three examples were laggards in 2024, but looking ahead to 2025, they appear to be excellent pickups on the dips . ASML Holdings There would be no AI semiconductors at all without the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) tools provided by ASML Holdings ( ASML -0.65% ) , which has a monopoly on this crucial chipmaking technology. In that light, why would ASML's stock be down about 4% on the year and 35% from all-time highs? The market appears to be honing in on a few short-term concerns. The first is China, where ASML has seen a surge of older and less-sophisticated deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) sales in recent years, ahead of more stringent restrictions placed on equipment from China this year. Although ASML will continue selling to China, they will no longer be able to sell or service several types of machines, so that pull-in of China sales this year could lead to ASML's China revenue declining next year. In addition, while the AI market is booming, larger, mature chip markets, like smartphones and PCs, have continued to languish for longer than expected in their post-pandemic lull. That recently led some foundries to pull back a bit on their near-term spending plans. However, ASML still projects growth next year, even if it's lower than previously expected. More importantly, at the company's recent investor day, management kept its 2030 revenue and earnings targets intact. Advanced chip production will now require more EUV machines versus DUV machines, and EUV machines are higher-revenue and higher-margin for ASML. Even better, ASML's higher-priced high numerical aperture (NA) EUV machines, which go for about twice the price of the low-NA EUV machines in use today, have just started selling this year. The growth and increasing mix of advanced EUV machines should lead to margin expansion, fueling solid profit growth through this decade at least. With the long-term picture intact and ASML's competitive position nearly assured, long-term investors should buy this dip with both hands. MongoDB Artificial intelligence applications will have to reference lots of data and make sense of it all incredibly quickly, which will put a lot of importance on how that data is stored in a database. MongoDB ( MDB 0.26% ) has a disruptive architecture for databases, called a document architecture, which allows for more intuitive organization of unstructured data than the traditional SQL (structured query language) database, which stores data in a more restrictive row-and-column format. If one thinks about the kinds of data relationships AI agents will have to retrieve and make sense of, MongoDB's document databases look increasingly better. Not only that, AI has recently made it much easier for enterprises to migrate legacy applications from traditional databases to MongoDB. To date, that has been a complex process leading to customer friction. Despite these positives, MongoDB's stock is down 35% year to date and more than 50% below its all-time high. Why would that be? According to management, the uncertain macro environment and companies figuring out what to do with AI have caused a slowdown in MongoDB Atlas usage. Basically, while companies are experimenting and learning about AI's potential, very few "killer app" AI software applications have caught on as of yet. However, as AI improves and companies increasingly figure out how to deploy AI applications, AI app usage should take off. As a majority of MongoDB's revenue comes from its usage-based Atlas database-as-a-service, MongoDB will see the benefit in the building and usage of AI apps. However, we are not quite at that stage. CEO Dev Ittycheria noted on the recent conference call with analysts that while many AI apps don't yet have good product-market fit, some are beginning to, with Ittycheria highlighting one such app built on MongoDB that has grown 10 times over the course of the year. As the AI revolution moves from the infrastructure buildout to software applications, MongoDB should see an acceleration in usage. Trading near a historically low price-to-sales ratio of around 10, MongoDB could see a bounce-back year in 2025. On Semiconductor Most don't equate On Semiconductor ( ON 1.08% ) with AI, as its biggest business is in power chips for the automotive industry . Specifically, onsemi is the current leader in producing chips from silicon carbide (SiC), a material that's somewhat difficult to produce but is much more conductive and heat-resistant than traditional silicon. SiC is thought to be crucial for future electric vehicles (EVs), and given the big slowdown in the EV market, onsemi is down 20% on the year and 40% off its all-time highs. But with the extreme electricity demands of AI data centers and the latest AI chips generating tons of heat, silicon carbide is now making its way into power control systems for AI data centers, too. This year, onsemi unveiled its EliteSiC 650V MOSFET for AI data centers, and management has invested early to get behind this trend. While AI data centers are a small portion of onsemi's revenues today, look for that to get bigger over time. Meanwhile, onsemi doesn't just make power chips; it makes sensors, too, especially for intelligent sensing needed in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for modern cars and trucks. And while 2024 was a down-cycle year for the auto industry overall, onsemi did land several large and important customer wins, including a huge multiyear deal with Volkswagen , the largest automaker in the world by revenue, and deals with Subaru and Denso , the world's second-largest auto systems supplier. At just 16.5 times bottom-of-the-cycle earnings, look for onsemi to outperform when the auto and EV markets recover and the company's chips make their way into more AI applications.

Bovine Colostrum Market Size 2024: Industry Analysis And Forecast (2024-2032)Shares of Distil Plc ( LON:DIS – Get Free Report ) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as GBX 0.12 ($0.00) and last traded at GBX 0.12 ($0.00), with a volume of 4000 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at GBX 0.13 ($0.00). Distil Stock Down 4.0 % The firm’s 50-day moving average price is GBX 0.15 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 0.27. The company has a current ratio of 3.47, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The company has a market capitalization of £1.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.50 and a beta of 0.61. About Distil ( Get Free Report ) Distil Plc, together its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and sale of spirits. The company offers its products under various brands, including RedLeg Spiced Rum, Blackwoods Vintage Gin, Blackwoods Vodka, Blavod Original Black Vodka, TRØVE Botanical Spirit, and Diva Vodka. It markets and sells its products in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Spain, Australia, and Russia. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Distil Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Distil and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

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